Rouge Redone
by SarcasticDonkey
Summary: What would happen if Shay didn't blame the Order for Lisbon. What would happen if he blamed himself. A story exploring what would happen if Shay didn't join the Templars.
1. Thud

Assassin's Creed Redemption

I don't own Assassin's Creed Ubisoft does. If I did there would be one set in Victorian London, and WWII... and the Salem Witch Trials... I think I have too many ideas...

Thud. "More." I barked slamming my cup down to the bar; the whiskey only kept the memories away for so long. Even as he filled my tankard to the brim, memories of Lisbon flashed before my eyes. The buildings I had only just walked past crumbling around me, the innocent I had sworn to protect being buried alive. Their homes shaking from the foundations and crashing to the street. The fire over the city as I sailed away on the Morrigan. Just another mess the useless Shay Cormac had made. Only this time I wasn't the only one who got hurt.

Thud. "Again." The drink wasn't working. All the memories were coming back. My arrival back at the Homestead was chief among them. I had stormed through the door like I always do when I'm angry; eader to face the problem head on. As stubborn as a bull, my mother always said and about half as smart. I had grabbed Achilles by the lapels and screamed in his face. "You knew! You knew what would happen!" Just like me, it was always someone else's fault. Thud.

Liam tore me off the Master and threw me against the wall, "Calm down Shay! What happened?" He held up his hands in a calming gesture I'd seen farm hands used on spooked animals all my life. There he was always giving me a fair chance. He was the who deserved to call himself an Assassin. Not me.

I was obviously one animal it didn't work on. "He knew!" I shouted "Lisbon's gone just like Haiti! His mad quest for power made me slaughter innocents!"

This time it was Achilles himself who threw me against the wall. "You dare show me such disrespect! Have you forgotten who taught you the Creed!" With anyone else it would have come off as bluster but I saw real sorrow in the old man's eyes. It was true; Achilles lived up to all aspects of our oath and never strayed from the path. He would never knowingly allow innocents to die even if it meant allowing targets to escape. Then the full weight of what I had done struck and I knew those lives were on me. I was the one who failed the Creed. All the fight left my body and I vaguely remember being thrown from his office and leaving my equipment on the table. I wasn't worthy of calling myself an Assassin. I may have left a note, I'm not sure but I took a horse from the stables and just started riding. I'd drop it off with the first Assassin I came across. I just had to leave, knowing I had no place amongst these great men and women willing to risk life and limb to protect the freedom of others. I couldn't even die right. Somehow I ended up in a pub in the seedy part of New York and there I stayed, trying to forget. So far it hadn't worked. Thud.


	2. Bloody High Opinion of Yourself

A/N Hey everybody thanks for reading the first chapter, hope you liked it. The reason I'm writing this story is I couldn't help thinking what would happen if Shay stayed. Just for the record this story is Shay x Hope amd the only reason she wasn't listed is because I couldn't find her in the character list. Of all the Assassin's I killed in Rouge she was the one that had the most emotional impact on me. And the scene at the end... there could have been something there if he stayed. Finally a big shout out to Mariape getting a fav on my first fanfic ment a lot and on the first day too. Any way to the story!

Hope's POV

I was on a trip to New York, checking to see how my gangs were doing. They weren't full-fledged Assassin's but they proved helpful on many occasions so it paid to keep them up to shape. I was making my final stop; a pub that served as a supply front for the Assassins when I saw him. I barely recognized the man. He was filthy with street grim, stank of old sweat and spilled beer. His haphazard hair which Liam and I would mock had devolved into a limp birds nest, hanging over blood shot eyes the only stared dully down at the chipped clay tankard in front of him. "More." The bastard said thrusting the cup at the bartender who dutifully refilled it. Seeing this proud member of our Brotherhood sunk so low sickened me. Shay was supposed to be full of fire and life, energy and wit. This hollow shell held only despair and self- destructiveness. He must have heard the clank of my boots on the creaky floorboards of the empty bar as I stalked over, his dull eyes showing only a tiny spark of recognition. "'Ello Hope," he said in a dead croaky voice "Here to kill me?"

"What?" Had I heard him right? Usually he would have come up some snide comment by now- "Coming to fetch me home Mother?, I'm just having a bit of fun."- something along those lines- but he seemed totally sincere. Worse he seemed almost glad as if he wanted me to say yes. "What did you say?"

"I said are you here to kill me? That's what the Assassins do isn't it? Cut down those who break the oath and kill innocents." He still stared at his cup, thrusting it forward again, but a sharp glare from me and the bartender had the good sense to flee to the back.

But his words, and the note he left with he things before he fled; "_May a better man than me use them"_; suddendly made sense. He hated himself for what happened. He shouldn't there was no way the earthquake and the artifact were related. "No one blames you for what happened in Lisbon Shay, Liam's been sailing the Morrigan up and down the coast looking for you and even the master seems worried though he won't admit it."

"They shouldn't," he still won't bloody look at me. "I broke the Creed in Lisbon. I need to die."

"There was no way you could have known-"

"Well I should of!" He finally stood and threw his tankard against the wall, shattering the clay into dozens of shards. "They told us all about how dangerous the Pieces were and I still just grabbed it!" He whirled to stare at me with those blood shot eyes and I knew that despite my years of experiance with death I had never seen those eyes before. These weren't like the eyes of many Assassins who weren't afraid of death; these were the eyes of a man who wanted it, _yearned_ for it. "I should have done something and because I didn't the blood of thousands of innocents are on my hands!" He snatched my pistol from it's holster and pressed it into my hand. "Kill me and make it right." He knelt before me and closed his eyes waiting for the bullet that would end his life. Prepared for it. He wasn't prepared for my stiff wristed slap that sent him the rest of the way to the cracked floorboards. "What the hell!" He screamed as he stood up, a hand pressed over his reddened cheek. Finally, there was some of that familiar fire back in his eyes!

"Still got a bloody high opinion of yourself Shay," I taunted. I needed him to snap him out of it; as much as I might deny it I missed his lewd jokes and swagger around the Homestead. Almost everyone did. "It wasn't your fuckin' fault but even if it was, you think your life is enough to make up for all theirs?"

"Well no... but-"

"But nothing bugger! We're willing to let you come back but it's your choice! If you want to redeem yourself in your own mind, you can do it by saving lives." I turned to walk away; he needed to be alone right now. "I'll be back at the Homestead next week. If the what to stay with the Assassin's talk to Achilles. Whatever happens... good luck Shay."

I was already closing the door on the way out when I heard his last words. "... I make my own luck..." Thank God


	3. Nightmare

I stood at the gates to Hope's mansion debating whether or not to ring the bell. I'd sobered up since last night and finally had some time to think without the bottle in the way. She'd said they wanted me back. That they'd been worried... I figured the next time I'd see an Assassin was when one slid a blade between my ribs.

I saw Lisbon again last night. This time instead of the streets it was the church. Everything I undid one of those locks I heard a scream. Jesus on his cross begged me silently not to walk down those stairs. Instead of a black star atop a stone pedestal there was a tree with a single red apple hanging from a branch. When I plucked it the floor gave way to crimson flames and a deep laugh. When I raced back up the stairs... it wasn't Lisbon anymore... it was the Homestead... it wasn't parishioner's falling it was the Assassins. Achilles... Liam...Hope... I knew it wasn't real but it could be. We had not idea where these temples where. There could be one under the Homestead! And if they found it and made the same mistake that I did...

With that thought fresh in my mind I grabbed the bell rope and gave it one swift tug. A nearby group of her men wandered over and sized me up. "Anything 'oi could help you with?"

"I'm here to see your employer." These men weren't much better than thugs. I didn't like it but sometimes the Order had to pay for help not fully dedicated to the cause.

"Mistress 'Ope is a 'ery busy woman. She don't letc just anyone in."

"She'll see me. Just tell her it's Shay Cormac."


	4. Visitor

"There's 'ah man 'ere to see ya 'Istress 'Ope." For Christ's sake! Sometimes it seems as though my men wanted people to think they were moronic louts. At least this one had the sense to look contrite. They knew I wasn't taking any visitors today. I had to finish some final arrangements to make then I had to head back to the Homestead. With luck I could beat Shay back. If not… at least I could tell Achilles and Liam he was alive and we could work from there.

"There's _a_ man _here _to see _you_ _Mistress Hope._" It really was an annoying habit. "If he's here on business sent him to Seymour; if it's another suitor send him away." Those were the only types of visitors they could be. 'Legitimate' businessmen who needed my men's services to smugg- sorry 'escort' cargo into the city or another slimy bastard who thinks he can woo me with a few pretty words and take over my businesses. Assassin's simply came up through the tunnels beneath the streets. That irked me almost as much as the suitors. Once Louis-Joseph came up with half his crew because he attacked a schooner that belonged to a Templar and needed a place to hide out. Sometimes I understood why he and Shay never got along.

"Yes'm," The guard gave a quick nod and walked briskly away already yelling to his men. "'Orry Cormac! M'lady says she won't be seein' ya ta'day!"

"Wait what!" Did I hear him right? He came here instead of going straight back to the Homestead? "What was his name?"

"'Ose name?" ...Really…

"The visitor you dolt!"

"Oh! 'Im! Shay Patrick 'Ormac he said.

"Umph." What could he want. If it was about coming back to the Order then he should be talking to Achilles. "Let him in…"


	5. My Story

_Breathe Shay breathe you've talked to Hope hundreds of times. _Somehow I wasn't convincing myself. I just... need someone to know exactly what happened in Lisbon. Not a report from an Assassin who came after or a story from a sobbing civilian. My account. What I saw... what I did... what happened as a result. Hope was always good at getting my head on straight; even though she would usually just insult me to do it. With that thought in mind I knocked on her solid oak door. Pretty but it'd probably stop a bullet and a few men pounding on it. "Come in."

"Here goes nothin'. " I murmured. It's not like I had much left to lose anyway. I twisted the nob stepped in and stopped... it's just she looked so beautiful sitting there that huge wall of windows painting her a rosy gold. I'd always thought she was pretty but...

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come in and explain why you're here instead of on the way back to the Homestead?" She was still Hope though.

"Just fixin myself after bein manhandled by your guards is all." It wasn't exactly a lie when those brutes heard Hope's first order I thought they were ready to toss me out the front gates.

"If you thought they were a threat then they would be dead and you would be halfway across the city by now." Fair enough.

"Killing your men hardly seemed like the best way to start asking you for a favor."

"If you need a horse you can have your pick from the stables. For anything else it can wait until I return to the Homestead."

"...Hope please just listen. I need to get a few things out before I talk to Achilles."

"I'm not going to help you avoid punishment Shay." That's what she thought this was about!

"Listen to me!" She jumped and looked away from those fucking papers she was reading. I could see her tense ready to drive any way for a fight. A fight she would probably win; I knew of three knifes she always carried there were probably more. "Sorry sorry." I tried to relax but it was hard. "I wasn't right when I accused Achilles of knowing what would happen but he needs to know. The Precursor artifact I found... it wasn't an Apple like the ones Ezio Auditore wrote about."

"Was it a crystal skull?" She had relaxed but sat up, finally she was paying real attention. "Edward Kenway, Adewale's captain had found one years ago in the Caribbean. With a drop of blood it allowed you to see through another person's eyes."

"No no it was more like... a black star just floating there. Just spinning on a little pedesta. It looked so innocent." and then... And when I picked it up I swear I was gentle... it just fell apart! Before I knew what would happen the city just fell apart... and I ran like a coward... all those people Hope please believe me." I couldn't bear to look at her anymore the horror on her face. Touching artifacts without knowing what they are... she must think I'm an idiot... no a monster. I put my head in my heads and wasn't to surprised to feel hot tears burning into my palms. "Just believe me Hope so no one else dies!"

I sat there for I don't know how long. It could of been seconds, minutes... it felt like days, just sitting there bawling like a little girl who scraped her knee. I was about to look up when I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. "This is something Achilles, no the Brotherhood has to know. Good work Shay." And then I started crying all the harder.

"Thank God. Oh thank God!"


	6. Arguments Among Family

"I'm glad this has come to our attention Shay," Achilles said placing a hand on Shay's shoulder. "I will send a message to all the Masters of our Order so they know not to interfere with the artifacts you have described for the time being. If what you say is true then they are too dangerous to trifle with. Our scholars will scour the texts for any mention of these 'black stars' for confirmation."

Liam pushed off from his spot on the wall and gave Shay a brotherly hug "You run off again and I'm keeping the Morrigan understand?"

Shay embraced him back and nodded blinking unfallen tears. "Aye."

It felt good to just stand there and watch the reunion between them; the brash younger brother who came home, the wise older one welcoming him with open arms, and Achilles their father sitting behind his desk proudly. That's what we were; a family; and you may not have to like your family but you always love them... "Very touching but these artifacts are too valuable not to seize for the Assassins. It must be a weapon of some sort, a weapon we can use against the Templars! The cabbage farmer could have set it off on accident! Too anxious to prove himself worthy!" Even when they make it very difficult.

"You can't be serious!" Liam rounded onto Chevalier "Even if it is a weapon no man on Earth needs that power!" He turned to Mentor, "We need to send a message to the Templars, they may be our enemies but even they don't want to destroy the world."

"Oh would you listen to this now, he wants to give vital information to the enemy!"

"To save lives!" Shay exploded and grabbed Chevalier by his lapels "You didn't see what this artifact did! You didn't see what I saw!"

"Enough!" Achilles roared slamming his fists to his desk. "Now," he said more calmly "we have to very different ideas with how to deal with this situation, Hope," he turned his head to look at me "would you care to voice your opinions on this matter?"

All eyes were on me; Achilles warm brown, devoid of judgement, Liam and Chevalier each burning with passionate fire and Shay's... they were heartbreaking... somewhere between blue and green... begging. They weren't eyes that held any doubt. "The ability to destroy a city in an instant. That's too much power for mankind."

"I agree. I'll begin sending messages to the other Mentors. Thank you Shay."


End file.
